Drug susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex by use of a high-throughput, reproducible, absolute concentration method.

Accurate drug susceptibility testing (DST) for Mycobacterium tuberculosis is highly important for both therapy guidance and surveillance of drug resistance. Although liquid medium DST methods are used increasingly and seem most efficient and fast, the high costs hamper widespread implementation. In addition, an inability to check the colony morphology of the growing bacteria is a disadvantage of these methods.

Misidentification and diagnostic delay Caused by a false-positive amplified Mycobacterium tuberculosis direct test in an immunocompetent patient with a Mycobacterium celatum infection.

The Gen-Probe amplified Mycobacterium tuberculosis direct test can give discrepant results directly in respiratory or cultured samples from patients infected with Mycobacterium celatum, leading to inappropriate therapy for, in our case, an immunocompetent patient.

Host-mediated modification of PvuII restriction in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Restriction endonuclease PvuII plays a central role in restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex isolates with IS6110 as a genetic marker. We have investigated the basis for an apparent dichotomy in PvuII restriction fragment pattersn observed among strains of the M. tuberculosis complex.

[Epidemic of penicillinase-producing, tetracycline-resistant gonococci; risk factors for their spread].

Objective: To assess whether the 1989 epidemic of tetracycline-resistant (TRNG) and penicillinase-producing Neisseria gonorrhoeae (PPNG) was caused by a small number of imported strains, and what the risk factors for infection were.

Design: Retrospective.

Setting: The National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection (NIPHEP).

Effects of isoniazid (INH) on the BCG-induced local immune response after intravesical BCG therapy for superficial bladder cancer.

Because recent investigations showed that the use of isoniazid (INH) severely impaired the local immune reaction to intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) in the bladder of guinea pigs, in this study the effect of INH in man has been investigated. Patients were treated with BCG with or without oral INH. The concentration of free INH in most urine samples of patients treated with BCG/INH was much higher (mean 38.